In the movie The Matrix, all of humanity lives in a computer simulation. Many years ago, robots took over the real world (not the simulation), and placed humans into the simulation while their body heat generated power for the robots. A few characters (Morpheus, male with glasses; Neo, male without glasses; and Trinity; female) have escaped from the Matrix, and are on a mission to free the human race from the robots. The title of the strip parodies the title of The Matrix's first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded.

A number of famous scenes from The Matrix have been parodied:

Morpheus wants to explain the Matrix to Neo, but says it can't be explained (you must see it for yourself to understand). In the comic, Trinity makes Morpheus look foolish by clearly explaining the Matrix in a single, simple phrase.

Morpheus shows Neo two pills, one red and one blue, and tells Neo that he can either take the blue pill and return to the simulation, never to hear about the Matrix again, or he can take the red pill and leave the Matrix, and "see how deep the rabbit hole goes" (a reference to "Alice in Wonderland"). In the movie, Neo takes the red pill. In the comic, he mixes the two pills then snorts them like cocaine, and apparently winds up in a bizarre dimension. Note that the inversion of both color and orientation could be intended to evoke the idea of capturing an image on film, which is *really* the only place where Neo and Morpheus exist. It is possible that the combination of pills allowed Neo to break through another layer of the simulation.

Neo and Trinity must save Morpheus, who has been captured by agents of the simulation. They obtain many guns and load them into trenchcoats. Neo is stopped at a security checkpoint in a building in the Matrix. A security guard tells him to remove any metallic items, such as keys, and place them in a bin, then walk through the scanner. In the movie, he opens his trenchcoat, revealing a myriad of weapons. In the comic, Neo opens his trenchcoat, but the guard's response of "eww" implies that Neo is otherwise naked.

Today was the ten-year anniversary of the release of The Matrix. I sat down to watch it again.

Megan: Holy fuck, ten years ago?

[Replay of various scenes from The Matrix.]

[Scene 1.]

[Morpheus and Trinity are talking to Neo.]

Morpheus: Unfortunately, no one can explain what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

Trinity: Sure you can. It's a computer simulation in which you live, thinking it's reality.

Neo: Oh.

[Morpheus is now glaring at Trinity.]

Trinity: ...What? Look, maybe you just suck at explaining.

[Scene 2.]

[Morpheus is talking to Neo while holding a red pill and a blue pill.]

Morpheus: ...Or you take the red pill, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

[Neo takes both pills from Morpheus.]

[Neo crushes both the red and blue pills into purple powder on a table top.]

CRUSH

[Neo snorts the purple powder.]

SNORT

[Morpheus and Neo are shown upside down in a frame with inverted colors, i.e., black background with white lines.]

Morpheus: Now look what you've done.

Neo: Where are we?

Morpheus: I have no idea.

[Scene 3.]

[Neo, wearing a long, black trench coat, at a metal detector, is accosted by the security guard.]

Guard: Please remove any keys, metallic items, weapons—

[Neo opens his trench coat, his back to the reader, towards the guard, who is facing the reader. The reader can't see what Neo has under his coat.]

[Same scene as above, but side view: Neo, on the left, is opening his coat toward the guard, who is on the right. Nobody speaks.]

Guard: Eww.

[End of scene replays.]

[View of room, where three characters have obviously just finished watching The Matrix. Cueball is sitting on the floor nearest to the TV. Megan is sitting on the floor, farther from the TV. A friend is sitting on a chair, farthest from the TV.]

Cueball: I forgot how good that movie was.

Friend: Wanna put on the other two?

[Cueball has turned to face Megan. They exchange looks without speaking.]

[View of room, which is now empty, as is the chair.]

CRASH

WHAM

Friend: Ow! Ow!

[Cueball and Megan are back in the room, but the chair is still empty. The friend is nowhere to be seen.]

Discussion

In panel #9, the characters are upside-down and the colors are inverted. Films are produced on negatives, which invert the colors, and are threaded through the projector upside-down (the lens turns the image right-side-up again when projected). This could mean that, instead of merely being in a "non-existent dimension," the characters have gone WAY out of the Matrix and now see themselves to be what they truly are: images on film. (If this was Randall's intention, he might have made it more clear by including the sprocket holes.) Shanek (talk) 12:08, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Regardless of the lack of sprocket holes, I think this is an excellent insight and I will add it to the explanation. 108.162.219.223 00:41, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Panels 12-13 could also suggest that Neo can't comply with the "please remove any metallic items" instruction because he has metal balls. Saibot84 (talk) 08:35, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

The opposite of what I replied to Shanek. 108.162.219.223 00:41, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

I wonder if the sequel bit implies of how the entire movie is supposed to make you just accept things as they are no matter how messed up, and people voluntarily ignore the existence of the sequels, which is the exact opposite of the philosophy that the movie encourages. AndyZ

Actually the Matrix was all about remaking the originals.

Something Holywoodland does every 5 or 10 years. They can even slip history 80 to 120 degrees west if they think the audience is really stupid.

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